Jaguar series finished off in New York

Jaguar I-PACE eTrophy 2018/19 finished the season in New York, where they ran for the second day in a row.

Unfortunately there were only ten cars to start, since guest driver Mark Hacking couldn’t participate due to his accident yesterday.

We already crowned the two champions yesterday, and that was why Sergio Jimenez could take Pole Position without any pressure. Like yesterday, his teammate Caca Bueno took second place, with Simon Evans third and Katherine Legge fourth. Bryan Sellers wasn’t on the track at all, since the mechanics found yet another damage on the car, after the accident yesterday in qualifying. And thus he had to start last.

Ahmed Bin-Khanen had taken Pole amongst the Pro-Am drivers, followed by Yaqi Zhang, the champion Bandar Alesayi, and Celia Martin.

While Jimenez and Bueno had a good start, Legge managed to drive past Evans in Turn 1 by placing herself on the outside and later on the inside in Turn 2 before squeezing past.

Sellers also got a good start of the race and gained four positions in the first couple of laps.

Martin got past Alesayi but outbraked herself midways in the race, so the champion got back ahead.

Sellers continued his progress up the field and came up to P5 after fifteen minutes. Top four was, however, seven seconds ahead, so the American had no chance to catch up with them, unless there was a Safety Car.

Legge put Bueno under pressure, in the duel for second place, but at the same time she had to keep an eye on Evans behind her.

Three minutes before the end, Celia Martin stalled on the track. The car just shut down without her being able to do anything. It caused a yellow flag zone, but the rest of the track remained green.

Sergio Jimenez won the undramatic race, ahead of Caca Bueno, Katherine Legge, Simon Evans and Bryan Sellers.

Ahmed Bin-Khanen won Pro-Am, in front of Yaqi Zhang, Bandar Alesayi and Ziyi Zhang – Celia Martin was the only driver who didn’t see the chequered flag.

Sergio Jimenez won the Pro championship, ahead of his teammate Caca Bueno, with Bryan Sellers third, right before Simon Evans, and Katherine Legge a bit further back.

Bandar Alesayi won the Pro-Am championship, followed by Yaqi Zhang, Ahmed Bin-Khanen and Celia Martin.

It was the ending of the first season of Jaguar I-PACE eTrophy. The season had sometimes delivered good racing, but there were simply too few cars in both Pro and Pro-Am. The original goal of twenty cars were never a reality, since the most they had were 13 cars in the first round, and later 12 and down to 11 in New York, where we unfortunately lost the VIP guest car on Saturday.

The hard truth, sadly, is that they need more cars if the series want to continue. The idea is excellent, but ten to twelve cars is way too few for the audience to be engaged. That is combined by the size of the cars, on the same tracks where the significantly smaller Formula E cars themselves barely can overtake.

But Jaguar has proven that their electric I-PACE car can be used for racing, giving electric SUVs a sporty look.

There are no news yet about the upcoming season, so we have to wait and see what the series will do.